Biocides, and in particular pesticides such as fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, are important auxiliary agents for agriculture in order to protect crops and to increase their quality and harvest yield. Depending on the various and often very specific needs, a magnitude of actives exists which shows very different chemical structures and behaviours. Nevertheless, it is well known from the state of the art that it remains difficult to prepare solid or even liquid compositions of these actives which are exhibiting a satisfying stability, especially if stored at very low or elevated temperatures over a longer period. In addition to storage stability and the ability to prepare stable tank mixes, the influence of additives and adjuvants on bio-performance is of elevated importance. Their choice is governed by many additional parameters, such as ease to manufacture, a low toxicological and ecotoxicological profile, their compatibility such formulations such as emulsifiable concentrates (EC), oil in water emulsions (EW), suspo-emulsions (SE) and concentrated suspensions in water (SC) or in oil (OD)
In order to meet requirements outlined above one can find various additives in the market. For example international application WO 99/027782 A1 (Henkel) claims adjuvants which are obtained from adducts of up to 10 ethylene oxide (EO) and/or propylene oxide (PO) units, end capped by C1 to C12 alkyl radicals. Syngenta's patent EP 1427280 B1 refers to Oleyl alkoxylates comprising typically about 20 moles EO or PO, preferably end-capped by butyl groups. The use of butyl chloride for capping the alkoxylate, however, is disadvantageous since the formation of butene as a side-reaction requires an excess of the butyl chloride. For application and environmental reasons, this is an undesired effect.
The problem underlying the present invention has been to overcome the disadvantages of the state of the art. In particular it has been the object to provide new additives for agricultural compositions fulfilling a complex profile of application requirements: adjuvant properties in order to support and increase the performance of the biocides within the compositions, high stability of the compositions also over longer storage times and different storage temperatures, compatibility with a wide range of biocides, and low foaming behavior.